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Companies house filing fraud?

CB lawyers offer their recommendations on the steps you should take to protect yourself.

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Published 8 March 2024

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It has been reported that several hundred “MR04” filings have been made at Companies House by an unknown person or persons, indicating that security registered against the relevant companies has been released. The filings have been made without the knowledge of the companies or the lenders, and appear to be happening at random, with no discernible pattern. While Companies House do not routinely check the accuracy of filings, we understand that they are urgently looking into this.

We recommend that you set up an alert at Companies House, to be notified immediately if any filings are made in relation to your company, or in relation to any company against which you have registered security. This can be done quickly and simply as set out here: Follow companies for free – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

If you find that you have been a victim of this activity we recommend that you notify Companies House immediately. It may be that they will exercise their new powers which have (conveniently) recently taken effect, allowing the Registrar to remove filings where (a) information in a document is false; (b) a document has been sent without the company’s knowledge or authorisation or (c) a document records a transaction that never occurred.

You should also seek professional advice, as this situation has the potential to affect the priority of registered charges. It is therefore not necessarily advisable simply to seek to re-register a charge.

For the avoidance of doubt – a charge which has been (whether deliberately or accidentally) wrongly shown as satisfied is still valid.

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Shorter Reads

Companies house filing fraud?

CB lawyers offer their recommendations on the steps you should take to protect yourself.

Published 8 March 2024

Associated sectors / services

Authors

It has been reported that several hundred “MR04” filings have been made at Companies House by an unknown person or persons, indicating that security registered against the relevant companies has been released. The filings have been made without the knowledge of the companies or the lenders, and appear to be happening at random, with no discernible pattern. While Companies House do not routinely check the accuracy of filings, we understand that they are urgently looking into this.

We recommend that you set up an alert at Companies House, to be notified immediately if any filings are made in relation to your company, or in relation to any company against which you have registered security. This can be done quickly and simply as set out here: Follow companies for free – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

If you find that you have been a victim of this activity we recommend that you notify Companies House immediately. It may be that they will exercise their new powers which have (conveniently) recently taken effect, allowing the Registrar to remove filings where (a) information in a document is false; (b) a document has been sent without the company’s knowledge or authorisation or (c) a document records a transaction that never occurred.

You should also seek professional advice, as this situation has the potential to affect the priority of registered charges. It is therefore not necessarily advisable simply to seek to re-register a charge.

For the avoidance of doubt – a charge which has been (whether deliberately or accidentally) wrongly shown as satisfied is still valid.

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